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Category Archive: Industry News
February 9, 2010
From: Lisa Harmon
Subject Line: Email Idols
Date: Wednesday, February 3, 2010
For those of you who didn't make it to the EEC's 2010 Conference, I'd like to share with you the fun of and the learnings from our Wednesday morning keynote session, "Email Idol." Creative teams from Smith-Harmon, Mighty Interactive and eROI took to the stage to show their best efforts at email stardom: Each redesigned email campaigns from USAA and National Geographic.
The good news? We were all Email Idols. Mighty Interactive's creative won the USAA audience favorite vote, Smith-Harmon's creative won the National Geographic audience favorite vote, and eROI's creative garnered the most orders when National Geographic ran an A/B/C/D split test between their control and our challenger versions.
Special thanks to Marc Haseltine of National Geographic, John Leistra of USAA, Sam White of eROI, Mike Corak of Mighty Interactive and Jim Spence of Smith-Harmon for rocking EEC 2010! I hope their efforts inspire you to do some creative testing of your own :).
Watch the Round 1 USAA video >
Watch the Round 2 National Geographic video >
Download the Powerpoint >
From: Lisa Harmon
Subject Line: Beyond Best Practices
Date: Wednesday, February 3, 2010
I was lucky enough to meet and talk with Marc Borgers and Michael Straathof of Borgers&Straathof at last week's EEC 2010 Email Evolution Conference. We chatted about moving beyond email creative best practices. Now that there's a general understanding of what the best practices are, there's an opportunity to find leverage in (and have fun with) breaking the rules!
Watch the video >
January 18, 2010
In October, I wrote about the genius EEC Marketing Haiku Slam. Since then (at random moments on the elliptical or on an airplane), when inspiration strikes I jot one down. My most recent favorite is below. I'd love to hear yours!
A/B Test
Ideally I'd split
My existence and test B
Against the control
Deep thoughts on a Monday morning... :). Have a great week!
December 11, 2009
For those of you who missed this year's Email Insider Summit, we've brought our "Email Top Chef Masters" presentation to you:
Download the PowerPoint here >
Plus, read what people are saying about the preso:
Arti Parikh from Orbitz mastered the art of creative testing >
Meg Reynolds from REI taught us a thing or two about incremental lift >
Chrstine Scott from General Mills shared engagement secrets >
Carolyn Ude from ESPN saw positive results with lifecycle messaging >
And, perhaps most importantly, we wore costumes >
Special thanks to Arti, Meg, Christine and Carolyn for both wearing aprons AND bringing us their marketing smarts. I feel so lucky to be working in an industry with such amazing individuals :)!
December 10, 2009
From: Facebook
Subject line: New Privacy Settings
Date: Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Great job by Facebook making it easier to share and not share. Once you have lots of people on Facebook you are bound to have a mixture of who you know (from college buds to in-laws). You need to post on a "need to know" basis. Now you can.
The "Specific People" option lets you choose friends individually or from your predefined Friend Lists.
So for a small business, you could do social posts just like you send targeted email. Don't think you can do that yet for a large business due to restrictions on Friend List sizes.
December 2, 2009
Black Friday, Cyber Monday...Cyber Sunday? Though the holiday season has just begun, it has already set the bar for 2010. Retailers are setting new records in terms of email volume and finding new and exciting ways to get ahead of the pack. Smith-Harmon Research Director Chad White is on the front lines, highlighting the top email trends of the holiday season in his new five-page report, "Black Friday and Cyber Monday Set Retail Email Volume Records."
This research report gives you the lowdown on when retailers sent emails and provides some useful tips for how to take advantage of top selling days like Cyber Monday. Armed with Chad's email wisdom, you'll be ready to tackle those benchmarks for next year's holiday campaign.
Here's a taste:
"In addition to more retailers sending email on Black Friday itself, retailers also promoted Black Friday in their promotional emails much more vigorously and much earlier this year than in the past. During the four weeks leading up to Nov. 27, the number of retail emails referencing Black Friday rose 96% this year compared to 2008."
Get the whole scoop: Download the free report now.
October 27, 2009
I've always believed that email is an art form. The whole industry's in on it with the genius eec Email Haiku Slam. Below are just a handful of the awesome examples. Check out all the email poetry entries - and offer your own - at emailexperience.org!
Email done quite well
Is loved by ISPs
And subscribers too
blasts are from the past
and relevance they will kill
ROI, think not
Loren McDonald
Silverpop
Email leaves the leaves
on the trees; it connects and
saves our world at oncet
Sarah Hatch
ExactTarget
Timely arrows sent
From my marketing quiver
Win the valued prey
Kimberly Canedo
Responsys
April 6, 2009
From: Coach
Subject Line: have you seen it? the new coach.com
Date: Monday, April 4, 2009
Coach.com announced their website revamp via email this morning. In contrast to the very focused approach taken by Williams-Sonoma in 2008, Coach's message is an explosion of screenshots and pink. While I could go on about the lack of standard logo and navigation, the unfortunate, not-so-easy-to-read tiny graphical text and the endless scrolling, that would just be boring. By now, we've all taken a trip on the best practices train to 516 W34th Street and back. (Check out our Email Insider "Break the Rules" article for more on this topic.) What I like about this email is that while it's absolutely overflowing with content and screengrabs, it's also overflowing with enthusiasm and excitement. I get the sense that Coach is excited about the new coach.com, and therefore, so am I. As an email viewer, do I have the patience to actually squint through the fine print and all the little screenshots? Not so much. But I am inspired to click through and check out the new website (and I'm not really even a Coach shopper), so in essence, this email has more than done it's job.
I like to make this analogy: a promotional retail email should act like a retail store window. It needs to be compelling enough to bring passers-by inside.
March 11, 2009
From:Lisa Harmon
Subject Line: What!? Who said email isn't sexy!?
Date: March 11, 2009
Looks like we've hit the big time, kids! Special thanks to Mike Smayo of Thrillist for forwarding along this BusinessWeek article about the efficacy of email newsletters in a down economy. It's true; the rest of the marketing and business worlds are finally "getting it!" ...Although I'd call email marketing nothing but glamorous ;)...
March 10, 2009
From: Smith-Harmon
Subject Line: Smith-Harmon Releases Retail Welcome Email Benchmark Study
Date: March 10, 2009
The 3rd Annual Study Covers Trends and Best Practices for Creating an Impactful and Engaging Welcome Email
SEATTLE, March 10, 2009 — Smith-Harmon, Inc., an email marketing strategy and creative services agency, today announced the release of the Retail Welcome Email Benchmark Study. Looking at welcome email trends and best practices among the nation’s top online retailers, the study also includes advice and insights from Responsys, which partnered with Smith-Harmon on this study
“The welcome email is probably the single greatest opportunity that email marketers have to engage subscribers and drive action,” says Lisa Harmon, co-founder and principal at Smith-Harmon. “Welcome messages generate superior open rates and, done well, create a halo effect that boosts subscribers’ engagement with subsequent promotional and trigger emails.”
Given the golden opportunity that welcome emails present marketers, it’s unfortunate that so many still let the moment pass—or bungle the interaction with uninspired messaging. After examining the welcome email practices of 112 of the largest online retailers, Smith-Harmon found that only 76% of them sent out welcome emails. While that’s up from 72% in 2007 and 66% in 2006, it’s disheartening that more companies aren’t seizing this key marketing moment.
“The very first step in any email program is to acquire names to send your message to, but often in that process, we fail to set solid expectations on what the subscriber has really just agreed to receive,” says Stefan Pollard, senior strategic consultant with email service provider Responsys, which partnered with us on this study. “This gap is where the welcome email shines in its importance to start that new relationship with a wealth of information that the sign-up process may not have had time to communicate. More than simply confirming that an action has been taken, the welcome email is the first chance you have to engage your new subscriber and provide immediate value from your email program.”
We found plenty of opportunity for improvement, as some retailers didn’t make the strongest first impressions. For instance, 23% of retailers took more than 24 hours to deliver their welcome emails, greatly diminishing their effectiveness.
Others didn’t take advantage of their welcome emails to set expectations and drive engagement and sales. For example, only 76% explained the benefits of being a subscriber and only 87% included a link to their homepage.
Many retailers also failed to use their welcome email for progressive profiling, asking subscribers for more information about themselves and their interests to boost the relevancy of future emails. Only 24% of retailers did this, down from 28% in 2006.
"Creating welcome series rather than a having a single welcome email is also a growing trend," says Aaron Smith, co-founder and principal at Smith-Harmon. “Our award-winning work on REI’s year-long welcome series for new co-op members proves that these can be very effective at driving long-term engagement.” At least 9% of retailers are currently using welcome series of two or more emails.
Other key findings from the study include:
- Text-only welcome emails are becoming increasingly antiquated. More than 89% of retailers sent HTML welcome emails, up from 78% in 2007 and 69% in 2006.
- The role that welcome emails can play in ensuring future deliverability of emails is growing. More than 68% of retailers used welcome emails to ask new subscribers to add the sender to their address book, up from about 62% in 2007 and 49% in 2006.
- The number of top online retailers making their emails CAN-SPAM compliant rose significantly. Nearly 71% included both an unsubscribe link and their mailing address, up from 58% in 2007 and 52% in 2006.
- While 15% of welcome emails include a forward-to-a-friend link, none of those studied included a share-with-your-network (SWYN) link. We expect many marketers to adopt SWYN this year, including adding it to their welcome emails.
Download the Retail Welcome Email Benchmark Study >
February 14, 2009
From: Smith-Harmon
Subject Line: REI and Smith-Harmon Win eec People’s Choice Award: Best in Email
Date: February 14, 2009
Year-long Welcome Email Series Recognized by Industry Peers as Groundbreaking
SEATTLE, February 13, 2009 — Smith-Harmon, Inc., an email marketing strategy and creative services agency, and Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), the national outdoor gear and apparel retailer, have been named the winners of the Email Experience Council’s People’s Choice Award: Best in Email for their work together on REI’s new member welcome series.
The welcome campaign consists of 12 email messages that are sent to new co-op members over the course of their first year of membership, culminating in a 1-year anniversary message. In addition to creating a dialogue between REI and its newest members, the campaign is also one of the company’s inaugural efforts to leverage membership data to increase relevancy in REI customer communications.
“Selecting a winner for this year’s People’s Choice Award was a simple task,” said Jeanniey Mullen, founder of the Email Experience Council. “Within minutes of opening up voting to the eec membership, this campaign was identified as a winner. The eec received a tremendous number of email messages and notes from those who voted praising the creative and effective approach this campaign used. We were thrilled to award the People’s Choice Award to Smith-Harmon and REI at our annual Email Evolution Conference and hope that this campaign inspires other email marketers to strive for such outstanding results.”
Lisa Harmon, co-founder and principal at Smith-Harmon, said, “When there are still a significant number of marketers who don’t send a welcome email at all, REI’s 12-email new member welcome series is truly remarkable. Focused on engagement through brand messaging and education, it stands in sharp contrast to the highly promotional tenor of most retail emails, and shows that the soft-sell approach delivers higher lifetime value.”
Meg Reynolds, REI’s manager of email programs, said, “REI is delighted with this recognition from the EEC and its members. It’s great to have industry peers acknowledge your efforts as best-of-class. Smith-Harmon translates the REI brand with exceptional skill and nuance in our email communications. It’s a great partnership.”
Each email in the welcome series showcases photography submitted by REI members and focuses on a single topic—whether it’s REI’s environment stewardship, member dividends or educational resources. The images and language highlight REI’s passionate commitment to its members, local communities and the great outdoors, while encouraging new members to take part in the REI community through stewardship, outdoor clinics, gear reviews and more.
View the creatives for the 12 emails in REI’s new member welcome series.
The winner of the eec People’s Choice Award: Best in Email was announced at the Email Evolution Conference, which was held Feb. 9-11 at the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, Ariz.
February 12, 2009
From: Lisa Harmon
Subject Line: EEC09: Email Creative Fight Night Presentation Now Available!
Date: Thursday, February 12, 2009
From Left to Right: Sam White of eROI, Lisa Harmon of Smith-Harmon, Julian Scott of Responsys, Mike Corak of Mighty Interactive
For those of you who didn't make it to EEC09, grab your ringside seat to see the blow-by-blow of a knockout session - Email Creative Fight Night: Agency vs. Agency vs. Agency. Responsys, eROI and Mighty Interactive squared off to redesign three emails chosen by EEC Evolution Conference attendees. One rep from each agency showed off their skills and presented the redesigns to the crowd. Each round had a winner, and the Heavyweight Champ of Email was revelealed. I acted as ringside judge and moderator, and shared a few one-two design punches of my own. The gloves are off!
Check out the PowerPoint presentation here >
Watch round 1 >
Watch round 2 >
Watch round 3 >
January 15, 2009
From: Smith-Harmon
Subject Line: Holiday Retail Email Volume Sets Record
Date: January 15, 2009
The holidays may be over for regular folk, but for us email marketers, not so much. We're still culling through all the data to get a detailed view of the '08 holiday stats and facts. Thanks to our resident research expert, Chad White, we now have a new FREE reportlet to help us sort through the mountain of numbers and focus on the biggest stories.
Check out some of the stats he's uncovered:
Retailers ratcheted up their send volumes by 43% during the holiday email season
Retailers sent approximately 3.9 promotional emails during the week of Dec. 19
The Retail Email Index was up 15% year-over-year during the holiday email season
This season, 15% of retailers more than doubled their email output
And that's just the short of it. Chad goes into great detail to explain the results of the holiday email hoopla that sent retail email volume through the roof. This 6-page reportlet discusses trends around the overall frequency increases during the holidays, the breakdown of weekly holiday vs. pre-holiday send volumes, and the impact of pre-holiday frequencies on holiday frequencies.
Ready to dig into the data? Download the free reportlet now.
January 8, 2009
From: Smith-Harmon
Subject Line: Get a FREE Email Redesign
Date: January 8, 2009
Hey, all you EEC attendees, listen up. This is your chance to get a FREE email redesign. Yep, you heard that right. A FREE email redesign! As part of the Email Creative Fight Night session during this year's Email Evolution Conference, three top agencies will be redesigning emails chosen from those submitted by EEC attendees, like you!
I'll be moderating the session and the ringside judges will be Dylan Boyd from eROI, Julian Scott from Responsys and Mike Corak from Mighty Interactive.
Interested in throwing your current email program into the redesign ring?
Submit your emails for redesign by January 13 to Ali Swerdlow at aswerdlow@the-dma.org.
P.S. If you're looking for some pointers on how to improve your current email design, be sure to check out the Email Design Workshop at the Email Evolution Conference .
Learn how to design for images off, optimize subject line and body copy, use animated gifs and video, create strong calls to action and put together strong content strategies.
Speakers include: Matthew Caldwell, Creative Director at Yesmail, Aaron Smith, Principal at Smith-Harmon; Jessica Morris, eMail Marketing Manager, Pottery Barn Brands (Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids and PBteen); and Chad White,Research Director, Smith-Harmon.
Get more info about the Email Evolution Conference >
January 6, 2009
From: Smith-Harmon
Subject Line: Retail Email Year-End Trends for 2008
Date: January 6, 2009
If you're in the midst of planning your 2009 email marketing strategy, this free reportlet from Chad White, Smith-Harmon's research director, is a definite must-read. It's packed with stats, trends and charts about the overall retail email volume, frequency and timing among the top online retailers in 2008. Want to know which days of the week were most popular to send retail emails? Interested in the top 20 retail email days of the year? Ready to learn what the SECOND biggest retail email season was, behind Christmas? Fasten your seatbelt and get ready for a few surprises.
Download the free reportlet now to get the panoramic view of what happened in the world of retail email in 2008.
December 22, 2008
From: Smith-Harmon
Subject Line: Merry Email Marketing MAD LIBS from Smith-Harmon
Date: December 22, 2008
Remember how much fun MAD LIBS were as a kid? Take a trip down memory lane with Merry Email Marketing MAD LIBS from Smith-Harmon! Chad White, our research whiz, has put together some festive fill-in-the-blank fun with a special email twist. No one's really working this week anyways, right? (Just kidding, Lisa and Aaron.) But seriously, download these merry makers and share them with your coworkers for a laughternoon break. When you’re done, post your stories as a comment to this blog entry for all to see.
Download Merry Email Marketing MAD LIBS >
P.S. Here's mine!
Dear Santa,
I’ve been very bossy this year. Using my silly email marketing strategies, I drove ten dollars in sales, which everyone agrees is industry-leading. In fact, during my annual performance review, my boss, who we’ve secretly nicknamed GoGo, said I'm the bestest marketer she has ever met during her five-year career. During the Valentine’s Day season, one loudly crafted email sold out the gold-plated Tickle Me Elmo that we outbid WalMart for. And during the back-to-school season, one of my emails sold a record number of horse-print jeans. Because I’ve been so nice, I hope you’ll grant this gorgeous Christmas
wish and destroy Earthlink with a hail of frozen shoes.
December 5, 2008
From: Smith-Harmon
Subject Line: Chad White's Cyber Monday Report
Date: December 5, 2008
Online retailers put a lot of bank behind Cyber Monday this year, and the big question is: Did it pay off? That's a big ole YES from Chad White, Smith-Harmon's new Research Director. His latest FREE reportlet, Cyber Monday Sees Record Retail Email Volume is packed with much more than just retail email volume and messaging stats. This 11-page gem gets into a full-on discussion of messaging trends with creative samples.
Download the free reportlet now to get the complete story on the biggest day in online shopping.
December 1, 2008
From: Smith-Harmon
Subject Line: Stop the Press!
Date: December 1, 2008
Smith-Harmon Names Retail Email Expert Chad White as Research Director
Email Marketing Agency Launches Research Library
SEATTLE, Dec. 1, 2008 — Smith-Harmon, Inc., an email marketing strategy and creative services agency, today announced the appointment of respected email industry expert Chad White as its Research Director. In this newly created role, White will produce research on retail email marketing practices, perform industry outreach and help support Smith-Harmon clients.
“I am proud and excited to announce that Chad is joining the Smith-Harmon team,” said Lisa Harmon, Principal. “We have long admired his invaluable contributions to this space, including his Retail Email Blog, his research reports on email marketing best practices and trends, his insightful Email Insider columns, and his involvement with the Email Experience Council. Chad is well-known throughout the industry for his thought-leadership. His knowledge and experience will not only add tremendous value to Smith-Harmon, but will continue to benefit all marketers through our newly launched Research Library.”
All of White’s upcoming research reports, including a recap of Cyber Monday activity later this week, will be available for download in the Research Library, along with research from other Smith-Harmon team members.
Aaron Smith, Principal, said: “We are delighted to have Chad join our team. His efforts will figure significantly in the enhancement of our research and strategic consulting service offerings. Not only is Smith-Harmon positioned to offer our clients deeper and broader support; we are also poised to better serve the entire industry by becoming a premier source of quality research.”
Prior to joining Smith-Harmon, White was the Director of Retail Insights and Editor-at-Large at the Email Experience Council (eec), the email marketing arm of the Direct Marketing Association. He headed up the eec’s research efforts, writing dozens of reports, while also working with the eec’s Member Roundtables to hone and publish their research. Before the eec, he was an editor at Dow Jones & Co. and a managing editor at Condé Nast.
November 19, 2008
From: Me
Subject Line: 2008 Retail Email Subscription Benchmark Study Released!
Date: Wednesday, November 19, 2008
2007 was all about relevancy. 2008 is all about the subscriber. In fact, subscribers are the new black. Stay on top of the trend: check out the terrifically thorough and incredibly interesting Retail Email Subscription Benchmark Study, authored by Chad White of the eec, to help you build a richer, more effective email subscription experience.
Learn more about the groundbreaking study now >
August 26, 2008
From: Me
Subject Line: Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season
Date: Tuesday, August 26, 2008
This just in: the Email Experience Council just released the Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season! Last year, the eec tracked more than 3,300 emails from more than 100 top online retailers during the fourth quarter and released daily reports on strategies, tactics and trends via the Retail Email Blog. Based on that monitoring, they've created a helpful roadmap to the email holiday season so retailers and other B2C companies can better formulate their campaigns this year. This is a hugely valuable resource: make sure to make it a part of your holiday planning! Learn more about the Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season here >
August 7, 2008
In true blogger fashion, I am happy to announce the launch of our newly redesigned blog via a blog posting :)
In addition to the fancy new look, the blog will include many more voices from the S-H team, providing a well-rounded perspective on email industry topics, from creative and strategy to copywriting and coding. Look for lots of new faces joining the blogging crew in the coming weeks!
A big thanks to all the hard-working members of team who contributed and helped make this happen!
February 13, 2008
From: Me
Subject Line: Live from the Airport: EEC Email Evolution Conference Highlights
Date: Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Congratulations to the EEC team for putting together a fantastic event; the Email Evolution Conference was evolutionary. My five favorite moments:
(1) The inspiring and entertaining kick-off keynote, which included video, audience surveys and Craig Spiezle (Microsoft's Director of Security) in a USPS uniform.
(2) The illuminating discussion about how to set up a successful internal service bureau with Lauren Skena (National Geographic), Tim Norris (Gannett), Brian Schonherz (Conde Nast) and Christina Nicholson (Williams-Sonoma).
(3) The thought-provoking (and entertaining) conversation around subscriber list health between Bob Frady (Live Nation) and Clint Kaiser (Epsilon).
(4) The forward-looking perspectives on the future of the industry from Eric Kirby (Merkle), Loren McDonald (Silverpop) and Anthony Ginn (eHarmony).
(5) David Daniels' (Jupiter Research) introduction of the word " blastards," used to refer to out-of-control batch-and-blasters.
February 1, 2008
From: FreePeople.com
Subject Line: Short Pants Romance
Date: Friday, February 1, 2008
Email + Social Networking = so hot right now! Yet despite all the talk, I haven't seen many retailers integrate email messaging with MySpace sites. Enter the notably-early-adapting Free People! (They've been blogging and RSSing for ever.) Check out the hotlink to add them as a MySpace friend at the upper-right of this email. Kudos to Free People for sticking their toe into the Email + Social Networking pool! Although I'm not sure I'd recommend becoming an early adapter on the "Short Pants" trend. With construction boots? Yikes! Not hot.
January 28, 2008
From: Williams-Sonoma
Subject Line: Welcome to Our New Williams-Sonoma Site
Date: Monday, January 28, 2008
For those of you who haven't seen the newly-relaunched williams-sonoma.com, it is gorgeous! Very fresh. Check it out >
January 24, 2008
From: Me
Subject Line: Smith-Harmon and REI are 2008 EEC Performance Award Finalists!
Date: Thursday, January 24, 2008
I am proud to announce that Smith-Harmon and REI are 2008 EEC Performance Award finalists! See the details on the EEC website >
The Email Experience Council created the Email Performance Award to recognize an individual or company that has created a campaign that demonstrates the full power of email marketing. Chosen by
the members of the eec, the winning campaign will provide further evidence of email marketing’s unsurpassed return on investment and provide inspiration to others seeking to elevate the performance of their own programs. Entries will be evaluated for their marketing strategy, creative components and—most importantly—results. Learn more >
Members of the eec can vote for the winner from among the Email Performance Award finalists. Just log into your eec account and follow the instructions. Voting concludes at the end of day on Monday, Jan. 28. Vote now >
About our entry:
Working with our team, REI - the outdoors apparel and gear retailer - redesigned its July 7 “Summer Shoes Gearmail” email, implementing a range of best practices to optimize for viewing in preview panes, to improve readability, and to make calls-to-action more prominent. For the redesigned email, the unique click-through rate rose 22%, unique traffic to target specialty shop rose 90%, and revenue per email rose 11%. Because of the strength of the results of this creative test, REI moved forward with an entire suite of redesigned, maximized email creative templates in time for the critical fourth-quarter period.
For details, view our nomination form >
And check out the creative:
Summary of Redesigned Creative Innovations >
Legacy Creative >
Legacy Creative in Preview Pane >
Redesigned Creative >
Redesigned Creative in Preview Pane >
October 25, 2007
From: Me
Subject Line: MAKE IT POP! Launches on the EEC Blog
Date: Thursday, October 25, 2007
I am proud to announce that I have joined the Email Experience Council blog as a contributor with "MAKE IT POP!", a weekly post dedicated to reviewing the good, the bad and the ugly in email creative.
The EEC blog is a forum for the email marketing industry's leading voices, where you'll find the opinions and thought-leadership that are driving the next evolution of email. Visit blog.emailexperience.org to check out "MAKE IT POP!", plus tons of other posts by smart folks including Bill McCloskey, Chad White, Stephanie Miller and more.
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